Telegraph Appointments To Usher In Sales Overhaul

Today marks the first day of the new “dream team” tenure at the Telegraph, as Jim Freeman starts in his role as head of trading, reporting to executive director Dave King, former EMAP Advertising MD and Carat broadcast director.

When Freeman’s hiring was made public in January, King said: “I am delighted to announce such a major signing in my first week. Jim will add expertise in the critical area of trading and sales as the market continues to consolidate. He is an ideal cultural fit for the new era. He joins a team that is looking to shape the future of national press sales.”

It would seem certain that, with the experience King and Freeman bring, the Telegraph‘s sales approach to agencies will be overhauled. It would also be no surprise to see cross-media deals on the agenda given the broadcast knowledge and contacts of both.

Freeman was ZenithOptimedia’s group head of press and radio. He had taken on the press role in the last two years, having carved a name for himself with his strong advocacy of radio as a medium – ZenithOptimedia were regularly one of the top three radio spending agencies over the last 8 years. Freeman was also a passionate supporter of J-ET, the radio industry’s trading system, supported by the IPA and CRCA – and run by MediaTel Group. “I am proud of what we have achieved together as an industry with J-ET,” he said.

As he settles in at Canary Wharf a tough task lies ahead, with a backdrop of staff cuts, and declining circulations across the newspaper industry. Quality newspapers as a whole have lost over a million readers in the last 18 months, according to NRS; and whilst the Telegraph titles’ latest circulation and readership figures show some stability year on year, full rate sales are notably lower than all competitors apart from the Financial Times.

The new owners quickly laid out their plans – in a letter to all staff in early February, new chief executive, Murdoch MacLennan described how the “new management team was reviewing the business in an effort to ensure the security and success of our titles in an increasingly competitive market.”

He promised investment in the publications – an increase in total pagination by eight pages and an extra eight pages of colour – and in “new production facilities to provide full colour newspapers to meet the aspirations of both our readers and advertisers.”

The £150m cost would be part-funded by the redundancy programme now under way.

One presumes the rest of the funding is expected to come from increased advertising and sales revenues. Welcome to the newspaper industry, gentlemen!

Telegraph Group: 020 7538 5000 www.telegraph.co.uk

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